PALMYRA — The ACLU of Wisconsin has learned that the Palmyra Police Department has a pending agreement to participate in Wisconsin’s first Task Force Model 287(g) program, the most expansive form of the agreement that directs local law enforcement to conduct immigration investigations in the field and make immigration arrests.
Until now, the 287(g) agreements in Wisconsin have only been in the form of the Jail Enforcement Model – which delegates immigration duties to jail personnel – and the Warrant Service Officer Model, under which local law enforcement serve immigration detainers.
Already, the White House has reached a total of more than 1000 287(g) agreements – more than any other administration.
The ACLU of Wisconsin filed an open records request Monday seeking more information about the Palmyra agreement.
In response to this news, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin issued the following statement:
“Instead of protecting our communities, the Palmyra Police Department is partnering hand in glove with ICE to carry out this regime’s plan to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones. Additionally, Palmyra PD is even taking it a step further than other agencies, instituting the most aggressive 287(g) model that gives officers the green light to stop people they think might be immigrants on the street, question them about their citizenship status, and even take them into custody.
Following the recent Supreme Court decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo that temporarily allows immigration agents in Los Angeles to stop people they suspect are undocumented based on racial profiling – including race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, or their location – this agreement essentially allows the Palmyra police to do the same. This program tears apart communities and instills fear, and we must reject it in Wisconsin and everywhere else.
People who are immigrants are part of our families, communities, workplaces, and places of worship. We join with our state’s immigrant community, faith leaders, business leaders, and law enforcement leaders in condemning local collaboration with ICE and calling for a balanced approach to immigration that includes both humane border management and a pathway to citizenship.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin’s full, statewide report on the jail-to-deportation pipeline, published in July, is available here: www.aclu-wi.org/publications/deportreport
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